A fight that started when three white men chased after three black men in Howard Beach early yesterday morning left one victim with a fractured skull, police said.

Hoping to prevent a racial flare-up, Mayor Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, held a press conference at a Queens police precinct last night and described the arrest of one of the alleged assailants.

Police gave the following account. Glenn Moore, 20, and his two friends said they were looking for a car to steal Tuesday night and walked through Howard Beach shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday. A white man later identified as Nicholas Minucci, 21, drove by in a 2005 Cadillac Escalade and returned later with two friends.

Police alleged that Mr. Minucci and his unidentified friends, whom police were seeking last night, issued a racial slur, chased the blacks to 160th Avenue and 80th Street, and then assaulted Mr. Moore with a metal baseball bat. One of them took sneakers and an earring from Mr. Moore. Mr. Moore ran to his friends, who had fled and called an ambulance.

Mr. Minucci was captured yesterday afternoon after police officers identified his car and allegedly found a metal bat and Mr. Moore’s sneakers inside it. Mr. Moore is at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he is listed in serious condition, police said last night.

It was in Howard Beach in 1986 that three black men were attacked by white men after their car broke down. One of the blacks, Michael Griffin, ran onto the Belt Parkway to escape and was struck and killed by a car.